High Court Case: Chief Election Officer denies excluding parties from contesting polls

Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 August 2025, 15:57 by Writer

Chief Election Officer Vishnu Persaud has denied that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has engaged in any “exclusionary practice”, in response to the Forward Guyana Movement’s (FGM) efforts to be allowed to contest the general elections in administrative regions where it will not be contesting the elections.

Through his lawyer Arudranauth Gossai, the Chief Election Officer said the applicant, FGM candidate Krystal Fisher did not identify in her affidavit what alleged exclusionary practice GECOM engaged in.

“If a political party fails to or choose not to submit a geographical list of candidates for the general election in a particular geographic constituency, then that party cannot contest the general election in that constituency and therefore cannot be included in the ballot for that geographic constituency for the general election,” he said. He said the FGM and Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity chose not to submit geographical lists of candidates for the general election for constituencies 7, 8 and 9 and 1, 2, 8 and 9, respectively. Against that backdrop, he said it is “expressly denied” that GECOM denied the FGM or any other party access to ballot papers.

Ms Fisher is seeking declarations that GECOM’s practice in excluding political parties contesting the national elections from appearing on the ballot in certain geographic regions violates the Applicant’s rights, as well as the rights of voters in those regions, to vote and to equal suffrage under Article 59 of the Constitution, is discriminatory in itself and/or in its effect, constituting differential treatment of voters based on “place of origin,” and race, contrary to Article 149 of the Constitution, and GECOM’s system of omitting political parties from ballots in regions where they are not fielding candidates for regional seats in the National Assembly distorts proportional representation, undermines the principle of representative democracy, and is unconstitutional.

She is seeking an order restraining the GECOM from proceeding with the conduct of the September 1 general and regional elections unless and until that political party’s list of candidates is duly included on the ballots in all 10 electoral regions, in keeping with Guyana’s Constitution and the Representation of the People Act.

Acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh on Monday said the High Court would hand down its decision this week. He said the court would sit all day Tuesday if necessary to receive arguments. Both Ms Fisher’s lawyer, Dr Vivian Williams and Attorney General Anil Nandlall said the issues were of “pure law”. The Attorney General impressed upon the court the “urgency of hearing and determining this matter.”

The Chief Election Officer challenged Ms Fisher to prove that GECOM excluded FGM from the ballot paper for a geographic constituency, a political party which submitted a geographical list of candidates to contest the general election in that geographic constituency or from the regional election a political party which submitted a regional list of candidates to contest the regional election in that region.

Mr Persaud explained that no member of the National Assembly is elected through the regional elections. He said in the general election, votes are cast for a geographical constituency list to elect 65 members of the National Assembly. After the votes are cast for the geographical constituency list, names are then extracted from that List and from the national top-up list to fill the sixty five seats in the National Assembly—25 from the 10 geographical constituencies and 40 from the national top-up list.

He said the Representation of the People Act states that a vote for a party’s geographical constituency list is simultaneously a vote for that Party’s national top-up list. “In other words, it is from the geographical constituency list that a vote is considered to be cast for the National Top-Up List. There is no separate vote to be cast for a national top-up list. The single vote is for the geographical constituency list.

Mr Persaud said the Representation of the People Act requires parties to submit, for each geographic constituency in which it is contesting the general election, a list of names of persons qualified to be elected in the National Assembly. “This is the Geographic List of Candidates and not the National Top-Up List. FGM did not submit a Geographical List of Candidates for constituencies 7, 8 and 9 as is clear from the Geographic List of Constituencies published in the Official Gazette.

Further, Mr Persaud specifically denied that GECOM omitted any political party from contesting the general election in any geographical constituency. “GECOM also states that no political party which submitted a geographical list of candidates, indicating a desire to contest the general election in a geographic constituency was omitted or excluded from the ballot paper for that constituency as falsely alleged by the Applicant,” Mr Persaud also said.

The Chief Election Officer said the general election is for the 65 members of the National Assembly by all the persons registered to vote in Guyana, is based on a system of proportional representation and is conducted in the 10 geographic constituencies.

Mr Persaud said in order to contest the general election in a geographic constituency, a political party is mandated by law to submit a Geographical List of Candidates for that geographic constituency. FGM submitted geographical lists of candidates for seven of the geographic constituencies and a national top-up list.

The Chief Election Officer said Ms Fisher’s allegation that the regional elections are for members of the National Assembly is “totally incorrect and false. But the regional elections are for the Councilors of the 10 regional councillors.

He said the FGM and Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity parties did not submit geographical lists of candidates for those constituencies and so there is no logical basis for those parties to enjoy the right to advance any arguments on behalf of them whether based on population size or other dynamics.

The Chief Election Officer said each political party, desirous of contesting the general election, must contest in at least six of the geographic constituencies, for a combined total of at least 13 of the 25 seats of the National Assembly, and must submit a geographical list of candidates for each geographic constituency which it desires to contest in the general election plus a national top-up list of candidates, and the regional election is for the Regional Democratic Council for which contesting parties must submit a Regional List of Candidates.